My favourite game
by spiritsunshine
Summary: This thought came to me when re-watching season 4 a few weeks ago. What if Erica and Arizona were old friends from college? And how do the staff of SGMW react when Arizona visits and changes all dynamics to the group? Absurdly AU. Mainly Erica and Arizona, some Callie but other characters will appear. More description inside.
1. Chapter 1

My favourite game

_[This thought came to me when re-watching season 4 a few weeks ago. What if Erica and Arizona were old friends from college? And how do the staff of SGMW react when Arizona visits and changes all dynamics to the group? Absurdly AU. No plane crash and no Callica or Mallie have ever existed amongst other pairings I'm not keen on. Any other character featured is in the place where I personally would like them to be at this point in season 9. Characters and places are Shonda's._

_I needed something a little lighter than Long Road from Ruin for a bit. I'm not abandoning it though!]_

There was nothing better than stretching your legs after a long sit down. Even more so when the sitting was done on a plane. Arizona Robbins was bouncy and perky by nature, but the pure glee of stepping off the plane was more than enough to have her looking slightly insane with happiness. Sure, she had noticed the strange looks being directed at her, but the excitement of departing the potential death trap in addition to getting to stay with her best friend for a whole month outweighed her slight embarrassment. She had always been of the opinion that planes should be banned, and teleportation should be brought into use. Surely there was a scientist somewhere looking into it? It would stop a whole load of airport related dilemmas; the boring wait before boarding, the flight, the waiting for baggage. Arizona smiled to herself; she could always quit surgery to look into this herself.

It wasn't that the magic of helping children wasn't something Arizona didn't love. She did. She just felt, in this moment, that the raw science might just inject a little bit more enjoyment into her life. The hospital took up every waking second, willingly, since her bitch of an ex Juliette walked out six months ago. Apparently it was horrendous of Arizona to complain about being cheated on. She ignored the sour taste which had accumulated in her mouth, suppressing it with thoughts of the research she was going to be able to do. Not surprisingly, being a paediatric surgeon meant the tiny humans had every second of her time. She had fleeting moments where she was insanely jealous of the neurosurgeons and the cardiothoracic surgeons who got the time and opportunities to research. It was only ever fleeting though because she would always remember none of the other doctors got to see the magic. Still, a month with her best friend in Seattle having a research break – it was enough to make Arizona want to go to full on Disney princess mode, complete with singing.

Luckily for everybody in the baggage claiming area, the pink and sparkly suitcase was one of the first on the conveyor belt. Arizona grabbed it, tutting at the amount of streamers which had gone missing off the handle. Who needed luggage tags when pink streamers exist? Not that Arizona had ever seen anyone with a matching suitcase to her. Deep down, she knew she just wanted an excuse to have the streamers she had missed so much since outgrowing her bike as a child. Extending the handle on the suitcase, Arizona took a few quick steps before gliding past the customs officers on her wheelie sneaks. She definitely enjoyed the bewildered looks she was getting from everyone over the age of about twelve, though not as much as the exclaimed "awesome!" from the children under twelve. A smug smile appeared on Arizona's face, she knew she was awesome.

Arizona let herself glide almost to a stop before carrying on walking. It had taken her weeks of practice to get that down; being ridiculously bruised during practicing was so worth it though. She had even gotten a round of applause. Not something she had expected. Arizona turned her head to see no other than her best friend.

"Smooth moves, Robbins!"

Arizona ran straight into the arms of her friend, laughing with the happiness of seeing Erica Hahn. When they had broken apart Arizona smiled.

"Erica, it's great to see you! We really shouldn't have left it so long…"

"I know," Erica indicated that the two of them should begin walking, "How has everything been? Oh, before you answer, is it a vanilla or caramel latte day?"

Erica had stopped her in front of a coffee stall. Arizona tilted her head, deep in thought, before deciding that caramel was definitely the way to go. Erica ordered and paid for the coffees, whilst Arizona filled her in on her day to day life. There was a lot for her to talk about. She had not only saved the lives of a pair of Siamese twins last week, but had been working on the redesign of the paediatric ward as a whole with the decorators. It was finally finished, and Arizona loved the look on Erica's face when she showed her the photos on her phone.

"It's awesome, isn't it?" Arizona smiled.

Erica bit her lip, looking unsure as to how she should respond, much to her friend's amusement. After a moment, she finally managed, "they make sparkly wallpaper?... With flowers? And stars?"

Arizona giggled, "Like I said, awesome! The kids love it!" She smiled at her friend who had a look of uncertainty in her eyes, which betrayed the smile on her face. It looked like Erica had more to say and Arizona was sure it was to do with her ex. Arizona decided to avoid giving her friend any kind of opener on what she deemed an out-of-bounds topic, instead handing her coffee over so she could put her phone away.

Once Arizona had put her phone away in her bag, the two friends silently made their way to Erica's car, parked in the Short Stay car park out the front of the airport. The car park was manic with people running with suitcases and car horns beeping. Arizona was sure some of the beeping was strategically blanking out some swearing. Shooting a glance at Erica, who was also trying to supress a giggle, she cracked into a laughing fit, crying and all. Blinded by tears, Arizona felt Erica take her hand and lead her to her car.

"Seriously Z, you'd be a liability if I wasn't around to look after you…" Erica mock-grumbled.

"You love it, E!" Arizona started to breathe more evenly, calming down a little from her laughter. "I totally make your life a million times more exciting!"

Erica stopped at her car, unlocking it and putting Arizona's suitcase in the trunk of her car, a smirk on her face at what her friend had just said. Erica knew she had always been the "boring" one. When they rented a flat together for college, Arizona was the party girl, so to speak, bringing home all the girls. Erica was less outgoing, she absolutely hated the social awkwardness that came along with trying to make friends, and the only relationships she had been in had been serious and initiated by the guy. She had always had a sneaking feeling she was only ever invited to parties because of who her best friend was, rather than her own personality.

But now, it was different. Erica had been working at Seattle Grace Mercy West for four years now as head of cardiothoracic surgery, and she had friends. Well, it was more like she had people she could stand spending time with outside of work. The same people they were going to be spending this evening with at Joes, the same people that Arizona was going to be meeting for the first time. Erica let her friend get comfy in the passenger's seat, whilst checking her mirrors, and setting off out of the car park before telling her about the night's plans.

"So, Z, do you want to go for drinks tonight? A couple of colleagues who aren't completely unbearable are going to be having a couple of drinks at Joes, you know, the bar across from the hospital. We could always have a rematch on the darts board. You never know, you might come close to beating the darting genius that I can't help but be. Oh and-"

"E," Arizona interrupted, "You had me at drinks. You don't understand how badly I need a wine. No, tequila…. Or Wine-quila if you will. You know what planes do to me."

Erica took her eyes off the road for a split second to look at her friend. "Wine-qila?... What the hell is that?"

"Well, you remember Juliette, right?..."

"Z, don't do this to yourself…"

"No, no! Listen!" Arizona practically bounced in her seat, "Her brother introduced me to it. It's drinking a glass of wine with a tequila chaser. Not too yummy, but once you've had two taste isn't exactly something you care about."

"From the sounds of it, you are going to love some of my colleagues…" Erica thought straight away about her fellow, Yang. For someone who was so work orientated, the woman sure knew how to drink. She made a mental note to at least try and keep the two women separated for the first hour or so in the evening.

"Colleagues, E? That sounds so… clinical. It couldn't hurt to call them friends surely?"

The glimmer in Arizona's eye, the one that Erica had never been able to say no to had appeared. The very same glimmer had lost her many evenings of studying to parties she never felt completely comfortable at. Erica looked away, eyes fixed on the road straight ahead before replying.

"See how you feel when you meet them before you decide that."

* * *

The afternoon had been full of coffee and catching up for the friends, before Arizona had announced she needed to get ready. They weren't heading to the bar until 7, and it was only 4. Erica was confused by the apparent need for her friend to get ready so early in the afternoon. They were only going to Joes; it was hardly a full hair and makeup occasion. At ten to 7, Erica discovered that her friend didn't know this.

She came out of her room dressed in her finest blue sequins – if there was such a thing, Erica thought with Arizona, there had to be such a thing… Looking in her wardrobe was a sunglasses affair at the best of times with all of the sparkle.

"Why is it just me that has dressed up, E?" Arizona pouted, and on seeing Erica in her finest skinny jeans and t-shirt, she began pulling the hem of her dress down as if suddenly self-conscious.

"Um, Joes isn't really a dressy kind of place, Z. It's the bar on the way home from work for all of us, not a dressy wine bar or anything… I thought you knew when I said we could play darts…"

Erica waited for the look of exasperation to leave her friend's face before suggesting she changed. A suggestion which earned her a middle finger and a few choice swear words. It didn't take Arizona long to get changed, into a similar outfit to Erica's. The only difference between the friends really was the shoe choice. Erica loved her converse; she literally had a converse rainbow, whereas Arizona's pumps were rainbows. Glittery ones at that.

"All set, Z?"

Erica waited for the conformational nod from her friend before leading the way out.

* * *

Heading into Joes, Arizona began taking in everything about the place. She wanted to know every detail of her friend's life, of the life she would be almost borrowing from for the next month. Either Erica always thought the worst of her, or it didn't look like she was just sight-seeing, as Arizona felt an elbow in her side.

"No picking up women here, Miss Robbins. I have to live here you know, I can't deal with the trail of heart-broken women you'd leave behind."

Arizona smirked at her friend. Since Juliette, she hadn't been with another woman. First Joanne, then Juliette – the lessons Arizona took from this was to not jump into a relationship, especially not with a woman whose name begins with the letter J. It was easier to not let things get serious. She was spared from the embarrassment of not being able to come up with an immediate witty remark by the bartender asking what drink she would like.

"Ooh, two Wine-qilas please," she said, flashing her megawatt smile.

The bartender looked completely flummoxed by this request; it certainly wasn't something he had served before. Luckily, this eccentric lady was with another, more familiar woman.

"Two white wines and two tequilas please, Joe."

Joe smiled at Erica Hahn, someone who frequented his bar often enough to be a regular. He hadn't really gotten to know her, but had always thought she was a nice enough person.

"Thanks, Erica. Translation was much appreciated." He said, busying himself with the drinks.

"Well, it's not like it wasn't kind of logical…" Arizona protested under her breath.

Erica smiled. "Joe, this is my friend Arizona. She's from out of town, which may explain the eccentricity," she teased her friend as she handed over the money for the drinks. "First rounds on me, Z. You can get the next."

With that Erica headed over to a group of people who Arizona presumed were her friends. It would be pretty awkward if they weren't. Arizona scolded herself mentally; there was no need to get all "eccentric" right now. Especially not in front of a group of new people.

"Hey guys," Erica started, "This is my friend I was on about, Arizona. Z, this is everyone."

"Wow, E," Arizona exclaimed in an overdramatized fashion, "how strange of you to know a group of people, all of whom are named everyone…"

Everybody sat around the table seemed stunned. Seemed being the operative word, as Arizona spotted a dark haired latina giggle at this comment. She blushed furiously and stopped giggling immediately.

Erica sighed as she sat down, waiting for Arizona to sit down too before beginning introductions, pointing around the table as she listed people's names.

"This is Cristina Yang, my fellow. Alex Karev, paediatric fellow. Jo Wilson, intern. Lexie Grey, chief resident. Mark Sloan, head of plastics and Callie Torres,-"

The blushing giggler, Arizona thought.

"- head of orthopaedics. Everybody else will be working I'm guessing?"

Arizona sat back and let Erica and her friends talk about where certain people were. It gave her a chance to try and remember the names which belonged to the faces, plus it was nice to see Erica being so social. Cristina was complaining about somebody called Owen being at work, Arizona presumed it was her boyfriend. There wasn't a ring to say he was anything more serious, at least. Apparently a woman called Meredith was at the hospital, and her husband was looking after their child, who had a stomach bug. Teddy, who had an adorable name in Arizona's opinion, was Arizona didn't pick much more up out of the conversation. Listening to people talk about people she didn't know exhausted her mentally, so much so she didn't realise she had been spoken to until Erica gave her one of her famous ribcage nudges.

"Ouch," Arizona rubbed her side where Erica had elbowed her. "What was that for?!"

"It's rude to ignore someone when they ask you a question, Z." Erica sipped her wine, looking straight past Arizona at the person sat next to her. Arizona let her gaze follow Erica's line of view, and found herself looking straight at Callie. The blushing giggler. This could be interesting if she let it be…

"Sorry, I was totally zoned out. I do that sometimes, bad habit. If you want to ask me again, I promise you can have my full attention…" Arizona drank some of her wine in an attempt to conceal the smile forming on her face. All conversation around the table had stopped, and she could feel all eyes on her. Maybe they hadn't expected her to be a lover of ladies, or maybe Callie Torres was about as far away from loving ladies as it got. Either way, Arizona was enjoying this slight flirting and the fact it seemed to have gotten to Callie.

"Um… Well, I was just saying why… No. I mean what are you doing while you stay here?" Callie looked as if she wouldn't have minded the floor opening up and swallowing her. Arizona thought it was cute. It opened a floodgate of ideas in her mind. If this woman was this wound up from a simple bit of flirting, imagine what she could be like with more…

"Well," Arizona smiled, "I'm going to be helping a couple of research teams in relation to the diseases within children." Her statement was met with a questioning look from the latina. "Oh, I should've said earlier, I'm head of paediatric surgery at John Hopkins."

Alex smacked his hand down on the table, getting the attention from not just everybody at the table, but also everybody in the bar. "You're Robbins! Arizona Robbins! I thought I recognised you! Your work is legendary!"

It was Arizona's turn to blush, and her megawatt smile made another appearance. "Yes, I am she, thank you… You're the paeds fellow? The Alex Karev I went out on a limb to try and snag?" She waited for Alex to nod sheepishly before continuing. "No hard feelings. I spoke to your chief; he said he wanted me for a surgery scheduled later this month. The research I'm going to be helping with will help with the case. I look forward to finally working with you."

Watching Alex's mouth fall open, Arizona was amused. Between him and the latina, this was going to be a very fun trip indeed. She finished her glass of wine, and took her shot of tequila, much the amazement of Yang, who practically skipped to the bar to get herself a Wine-quila.

* * *

Arizona woke up, her head a little hazy from the night before. Checking her clock, she saw it was time to get up. She was pretty good at getting into a routine, having spent the past few years of her life doing the same thing day in day out. It took her a moment to realise she wasn't at her apartment, and a moment more to realise she didn't have to work today. In fact, being up at 5:45 was not on the agenda for the day. But she was up now, and when Arizona was up, there was no going back to sleep. She made her way to the bathroom, considering a long hot shower to start the day, but changed her mind, turning on the spot to head back to her room.

Arizona threw her pyjamas off, replacing them with a pair of black sweatpants and a pink t-shirt. She hadn't been for a morning run in a while, usually choosing to run in the evenings. Checking the sunrise for the day on her phone, she hurried herself out of the apartment. She definitely didn't want to miss her sunrise run.

Arizona didn't stop running, except to cross roads. Erica had told her there was a park somewhere around the neighbourhood, and Arizona was determined to find it before the sun had fully risen. From the photos she had seen, there were waterfront benches, perfect for sitting and thinking whilst seeing the sun rise in her opinion. She first started having her sunrise runs when she split from Joanne during college. Arizona had taken it really hard, not being able to stomach food and filling the gap left with meaningless hook-ups. It wasn't until Erica had suggested she joined her to watch the sunrise that Arizona considered combining an old hobby with a new one.

When she reached the park finally, she made her way to the nearest bench and sat down, pulling her knees up to her chin and hugging them. This was her time, the time she didn't have to be bright and sparkly, no expectations. Just her.

Arizona didn't look around when someone sat next to her. She couldn't promise herself she wouldn't shoot a look of judgement at the stranger. There were a countless number of benches in the park, what was the need in sitting here?

"Hey."

Arizona looked around to see a familiar face. "E? Since when do you get up for sunrise?"

Erica had a small smirk on her face. "Since I had a visitor who slammed the apartment door on her way out..."

"Oh, E, I'm so sorry… I thought I was being quiet and-"

"Shh," Erica placed a hand on her friend's knee, "I'm used to it with you Z. But you were always coming in at unholy hours of the morning, not going out. Remember the time you thought it was a good idea to have a dance party at 4am?"

Arizona giggled. "My music wasn't that loud! Plus you joined in!"

"Yes, how could I not join in the fun?! But the music was loud Z; we had a few noise complaints that night." Erica scooted over to sit next to her friend, leaning her head on her shoulder. "I miss you getting me into crazy situations… Imagine being twenty again… I think I would want to be a better partner in crime…"

Arizona turned to look at her friend, the glint of mischief in her eye. "There's no stopping us from doing something crazy now…"

"Z…" Erica looked a little apprehensive. "What are you thinking?..."

"I have a few ideas… But if we're really going to do this right, how about we play a little game we used to?"

Erica looked like she was deep in contemplation. Arizona knew she had to get her friend to say yes, and contemplation was bad for this. As soon as her friend started thinking, she started doubting, and there was only one thing that could stop her from saying no to the plan right now. Arizona broadened her smile, making sure her dimples were in full view. It was rare anyone could ever say no to those dimples…

Erica sighed. "Alright Z, but first I have work. We can start this later."

* * *

Erica loved the heart. She loved the lungs and blood vessels, and how patients were always so grateful, and the silence of the OR. What Erica didn't love was sharing the title of department head with another surgeon, and she especially didn't love the days Teddy Altman couldn't supervise Cristina Yang. Admittedly, Altman took over Cristina's training most days – one of the main benefits of a job-share – but there were the odd days where Erica had a particularly interesting case that Altman would send Yang to her. Unfortunately, these were the cases where things weren't straight forward, giving Yang a chance to pick a fight over approaches. Which was exactly what Erica hated.

The case was difficult to say the least; it always is when it's a child. Being known as the ice-queen of Seattle Grace Mercy West made it hard for her to show her feelings in any other way than by drowning her sorrows at the end of the day. The last time she had even had her eyes water, Mark Sloan had made jokes for weeks about the air con needing to be on to keep the ice from melting. It was about as far from funny as Erica could have imagined. Feeling the need to cry, and knowing he was around the cardio wing, she slipped into the film-viewing room, not realising anyone was in there.

"Tough case, huh?"

Erica's eyes travelled across the room, seeing Callie Torres apparently in the middle of looking at some films. She nodded.

"Five year old needing a new heart. About as tough as it gets to be honest. UNOS said there's no heart available, and the only way she's going to survive is alcohol ablation… How am I supposed to inflict that on a child when it's unbearable for grown men?"

Callie's face was full of sympathy, something Erica couldn't usually stand. "How about we go for a few drinks later? Talk it out?"

Erica smiled. "Arizona and I were going to be having a couple of drinks at mine. If you want, come along, I'm sure she won't mind." She certainly didn't mind flirting with you all of last night, Erica thought. "We can get a couple of people round, I think everyone could use a drink tonight if the OR board is anything to go by."

Callie nodded, smiling.

* * *

Arizona had run out of things to do. She had done all the touristy things when Erica had first moved to Seattle, and felt silly doing them again. Instead, she found Erica's cupboard of cleaning supplies, and decided to have some fun. As strange as it might seem, doing chores was always very soothing. It was a big part of her childhood, her military father believed it would install a good work ethic as well as giving her mother more time to be a mother rather than a cleaner.

Arizona took Erica's iPod off her dock – she certainly wasn't about to listen to Erica's music. As much as she could appreciate Morrissey's artistic value, he was just too gloomy for Arizona's taste. Besides, cleaning time was dance time. Selecting her playlist of happy tunes, Arizona turned the volume up and began her hunt for dust, dancing around the furniture. Singing along to some Spice Girls, Arizona didn't notice her phone light up with texts. It wasn't until her phone rang that she paid any attention to it.

"Hey," Arizona ran to turn down her iPod, "E, how's work?"

"Surprisingly quiet, I'm surprised I can't hear your music… Seriously though, Spice Girls Z?"

Arizona chuckled, curling up on the couch. "You know I'm all about the girl power…"

Erica gave a choked laugh, as if she had been drinking something, which caused a repeat of the laughing fit in the airport car park. Arizona could barely breathe for laughing, and it took a moment for her to calm down enough to talk.

"I didn't mean it like that! You always think the worst of me, and frankly, I'm insulted!" Arizona pouted, making sure her friend knew she was joking.

"Because I know you," Erica laughed, "But seriously, Z, I called to ask you a favour. I've invited a few people from last night to join us tonight. Would you mind picking up some more wine and beer? I'll give you the money later."

"Sure, E…" Arizona started, "Have you explained to them what they're getting themselves into?" When she didn't hear Erica answer, she began to panic a little. "E! You can't just drag someone into this without warning!"

"Look, I thought it would be extra fun… Oh crap." Arizona could hear a faint beeping in the background of the call, "Got to go, hearts to fix… Just pick up the drinks and I'll see you later, ok."

Arizona hadn't been given a chance to reply to her friend, and instead sat looking at the blank screen of her phone, hoping that tonight's game wasn't going to scare off any of Erica's friends.


	2. Chapter 2

My Favourite Game part 2

_[I'm thinking this is probably going to end up being a 3 or 4 part fic, depending on how chapter 3 goes :) It's roughly planned, but you know how these things go. Plans being said, there's something i__n this I didn't expect at all. And it's shorter than I expected too... What can I say; it's all very AU… :)]_

* * *

There was nothing Arizona Robbins hated more than grocery shopping. Or more specifically, the people in the store. For one, there were always the people who insisted having a family reunion in the grocery store, blocking the aisles for an unreasonable amount of time and making it impossible for anyone to do what they had come to the store to do; shop. She felt that it was reasonable to hold this opinion; it was highly unlikely anybody actually arranged to have a family reunion in a store. If they had, then it would only be polite to use the café instead of the actual store…

The only thing worse was the people who decided to ram their shopping carts into the backs of other people's legs, or leave them in inconvenient places. Arizona had actually devised a licensing system for using shopping carts in one of her dreaded trips. People should be given a three-strike system before being made to either give their lists to someone who was employed to be using a shopping cart, or shop online. It'd create jobs and help keep Arizona's blood pressure down, a win-win situation if one ever did exist…But until her ideas were recognised as the genius they were, she would have to suffer in silence.

Pouting slightly, Arizona scanned the shelves for beer. Choosing wine was easy, being a wine drinker herself, but beer was something she had never particularly enjoyed. On draught at a bar, it wasn't too bad, but from a bottle it tasted soapy in Arizona's opinion. She picked up some brand she had seen an advert for and hoped it wasn't horrendous. Then again, she didn't have to drink it.

Looking at her shopping cart, she thought there might not be enough beer or wine there. Erica hadn't told her just how many people were coming, and judging from the previous night, everybody knew how to drink. Arizona doubled the alcohol content of her shopping cart, blissfully ignoring the strange looks she was getting.

* * *

Erica didn't think her day could have gone worse if she had purposely tried. No matter how you spin it, putting a five year old child in so much pain she's screaming out loud is hardly good for the mood. Yang had pointed out that Erica had just given the girl at least another six months to live. Erica didn't think that was much of a consolation, not right now. Sure, those six months were a gift her parents couldn't have imagined having, but at the moment the fact she had put her in pain was overriding any joyful feelings.

Noticing Alex Karev rushing off to console the little girl, Erica felt a lot of respect for him. Sure, Karev had been a moron in the past, but in the moment, when it mattered, he was at the very top of his game. Erica and all of the attendings placed bets as to what specialities each resident will choose every year – she was the only one to guess Karev would go for paediatrics. She had already met someone just like him, someone she knew better than she thought she knew herself sometimes. Erica saw Arizona in Karev.

That was partly what she put her feelings for him down to. How could she not feel close, emotionally, to someone so similar to the one person she had allowed into her life? Not that she had feelings for Arizona; she was more like a sister. Surely it was natural for her to want to be close to Karev too by association?

Seeing Wilson run up to him, eyes fixed on the patient, Erica snapped back into reality. Karev was unavailable, and younger, and she was Erica. The girl who never quite came out of her shell.

* * *

Arizona was relieved when Erica walked back into the flat. She had text earlier saying she had needed to stay with a patient for a bit. A little girl, Erica had said. It was all part of the job, something Arizona understood all too well. When it's a child, you go the extra mile.

That being said, Arizona had found it hard entertaining a group of people she had only met once before. Sure Alex, Callie and Mark were just as friendly as the night before, and Teddy was just as bubbly as Arizona herself, despite only just meeting her. They had all sat, exchanging stories about Erica.

Apparently, a lot of her colleagues thought she was a little bit moody, and tried to avoid her. Teddy had a gleeful smile on her face when she recounted the time she had trapped Erica in the elevator to get her to talk to her as just a colleague. A loose friendship came after. Mark had tried to sleep with her, as had Alex. Arizona noticed Mark elbowing Callie, and on seeing the latina's cheeks turn to the prettiest shade of pink, she had a suspecting feeling Callie might have tried to catch Erica's attention too.

Erica had chosen the moment when Arizona was about to tell a story or two about their time at med school. As disappointed as Arizona was, it was probably for her own good that Erica had returned before she had the chance to talk. Arizona liked living, after all.

Arizona jumped up and poured her friend a glass of wine whilst she was greeting her friends. Arizona also took the liberty of getting a container, a dice, a pad of paper and some pens collected. She doubted that anybody but herself and Erica knew about the night's games yet, and revelled in the power that gave her, for just a moment.

* * *

Erica took the wine glass being offered to her. She had never been known to say no to a glass of wine, particularly after a hard day at work.

"Thanks, Z. No Wine-quila tonight?"

She watched, amused, as her friend sighed.

"No… The store only had clear tequila, and it's just not the same…"

"Huh? Tequila is tequila…"

Erica looked across the room at Callie, who was well known for speaking up if she didn't agree with something. Either she had overcome the shyness she appeared to have been suffering with last night, or Arizona really had been looking after the guests. She had been known to not let alcohol flowing at social gatherings. Erica found herself wondering quite how much her colleagues had drunk before she had gotten home. She had to stop herself being a worrier; there wasn't a minor in the room. If they want to get drunk let them. Erica pulled herself back into the conversation just in time to hear the end of Arizona's famous tequila talk.

"So, in conclusion, it is the time the alcohol is left to age that produces silver or gold tequila. Gold is mellower because of its aging time. So tequila is not tequila."

Erica watched Arizona flash her dimples at Callie. If Callie wasn't careful, she would be straight under Z's spell, and if Erica didn't know better, she'd say blonde was Callie's type…

* * *

Arizona had always been good with women. She knew how to treat them, and how to make them fall at her feet. Her pulling competitions with her brother had helped her fine-tune her technique. Here she was sat in Erica's apartment, using them on one of her friends, something she had promised to never do. Erica had never made friends easily, and Arizona didn't want to scare any friend of Erica's away. She didn't even know if Callie was into women! She had to stop staring at the beauty in front of her, jumping up to collect the games materials.

"So, erm, did E say anything about our plans for tonight?"

From the blank faces, Arizona guessed not. She set the materials down on the coffee table before looking up.

"This is a game we used to play in med school. E wasn't too social, I was. This just helped E to mix in, as well as being super fun!" Arizona smiled, before taking a sip of wine.

"Everyone take a sheet of paper and a pen." She waited for the pens to be passed around before carrying on. "Ok, I want you to write down three things you are scared of doing. Three achievable things. Everybody's name will be going on a piece of paper in the central container. As game-master, I will choose the pairings. We use the dice to choose which of your fears you are going to be facing. I'll explain that in a moment though…"

Arizona let everybody think about their three fears. She herself wrote her own down. Go on a date – the first date since Juliette walked out six months ago. Talk to her uncle and aunt – they'd refused to talk to her when they had found out she was gay. Go to Tim's grave.

Trying to keep her cool, she began to write everybody's names on slips of paper, folding them in half and throwing them in the container, shaking it up.

"So, is everyone done?" Seeing the conformational nods, Arizona pulled the slips of paper out of the container in pairs, not opening them to see the names written. "Before we look at this, I want everyone to roll the dice. Numbers 1 and 4 on the dice correspond to fear one, 2 and 5 to fear two and 3 and 6 to fear three. And no cheating, cause your partner will check."

She watched as everybody rolled the dice, noting down the numbers people rolled. It seemed each of the doctors had a good poker face, with nobody giving much away as to how happy they were with their fear selected.

When it was Arizona's turn to roll the dice, she knew the only thing she didn't want was to visit Tim's grave. She had never really processed her brother's death, and she wasn't sure the possibility of facing it with an almost stranger was the best idea. She was so relieved when she saw that she had rolled a 1.

The only thing left to do was to reveal the partnering. Erica was with Alex. Mark was with Teddy. That left Arizona with Callie.

Risking a glance at her partner for the game, Arizona was relieved to see she didn't look too unhappy with the results. Perhaps Arizona had been right when she thought this would be an interesting trip last night...

* * *

_[Just for the record: I am shipping Jolex so hard right now that I could never write Erica and Alex as more than an attraction. I'm not sure where that even came from, but for my AU, I kinda like the idea of it strangely enough… Also, Mark belongs to Lexie, and I'm certainly not going to mess with that one!]_


End file.
